Definition

A hearing test in which a vibrating tuning fork is applied to specific points on the midline of the skull and face. Patients are asked to report the location of the sound. Those with normal hearing typically report that the sound appears to be coming from the middle of their head (i.e., they hear equally well in both ears). In unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness) patients report that the sound is heard in the intact ear, while those with conductive loss report the sound as emanating from the affected side. The former can result from the damage to the inner ear (e.g., cochlea) or the vestibulocochlear nerve, while the latter is typically related to problems involving the external auditory canal (such as excess cerumen), the tympanic membrane or the ossicles of the middle ear.

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